to help somehow. Reagan’s reaction had been so negative. Their son clearly needed an ally.
Even after taking a night to process their new reality, Luke could barely draw a full breath. Tommy wanted to be a cop? He wanted to skip school when Ivy League universities were offering him full-ride scholarships because of his grades?
Reagan’s reaction had been so quick, so biting, Tommy never had the chance to tell them the most important part: why he wanted to do this.
Why would the son of a lawyer—the grandson of a doctor—with grades and test scores better than anyone in the state, suddenly change his mind and want to be a police officer? At a time when some people want to defund police?
But that morning as Luke scrambled a few eggs and made a spinach smoothie, his shock and disbelief gave way to the slightest hint of something else. An emotion he hadn’t expected.
Pride.
Tommy had always been an exceptional son. Never mind his grades and scholastic accolades. What stood out about their oldest child was the way he cared for people. First day of third grade, a new kid arrived with braces on his legs. Kevin was his name. The child limped and kept to himself and until he met Tommy, the boy had no friends.
According to the teacher, Tommy welcomed Kevin to hang out with him and the guys during recess. When a fourth grader came running across the yard and tripped the boy, Tommy fought back.
So much that he wound up in the principal’s office.
Luke and Reagan had met him there and Luke would never forget what the woman told them. “Tommy will have to miss recess for a week because he fought back. But off the record, it was the exact right thing to do. Kevin needed a defender and Tommy stepped up.”
Tommy stepped up.
It was the same thing Luke and Reagan had heard about their son in middle school when a couple kids threatened a girl on the bus. Tommy put himself between her and them and told the pair never to speak to her again. If they did, they’d have to get through him first.
Luke glanced at the framed pictures of his kids on the fireplace mantel. Tommy was six-three and muscled from his time in the weight room and on the basketball team. But he was wiry. Never the intimidating lineman type. No, it wasn’t Tommy’s physical presence that allowed him to speak up for someone being bullied. It was his heart. His concern for others.
Last year it had been an incident on the basketball court. Tommy’s team had been visitors at a nearby school, and the opposing team had an attitude bigger than the gym. Just before halftime, their point guard pushed Tommy’s teammate. Hard and on purpose. Three additional Northside guys jumped off the bench and rushed the floor to teach the kid a lesson.
This time Tommy didn’t throw a punch or retaliate. He put himself between the offender and his own angry players and somehow he defused the moment. Entirely. Later his coach told Luke, “Your son has this innate ability. He knows when to get in someone’s face, and he knows when to talk the same person off a ledge.”
And Luke remembered what the elementary school principal had said. Tommy stepped up. He stood for what was right and true and he looked for a peaceful resolution, whenever possible. He was born with a strong sense of protecting those around him, looking out for those who couldn’t look out for themselves.
And wasn’t that what being a cop was all about? What it was supposed to be about, anyway?
Luke knew exactly how he was going to spend this day. The situation with Tommy was too important to put action off even a single day. He made himself a cup of coffee for the road and set out for the downtown precinct of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department.
His friend was expecting him.
Detective Mike Lockwood had married one of the lawyers at Luke’s firm six years ago. Not long after, Mike joined Luke’s monthly prayer breakfast. Luke and Mike hit it off and sometimes they’d catch up over coffee after the breakfast was over.
Today the plan was to meet at the park across the street from the police station. Luke took a bench in the shade of a hundred-year-old oak. Ribbons of warm sunshine shone through the branches.
Luke saw Mike exit the station and head his way. Mike had played running back for Indiana University’s